POP QUIZ:
1. Who was the last elected Republican incumbent senator to lose in the general election?
2. Who was the last elected Senate incumbent of either party to lose in the general election?
3. Since 1969, how many open U.S. Senate seats has Kansas had?
4. When was the last senator from Johnson County elected? Who was it?
THE ANSWERS:
#1: The last elected incumbent Republican to lose was Charles Curtis, defeated in 1912, only to return to the Senate in 1915 and subsequently become vice-president.
#2. Democrat George McGill won in 1932 but lost his 1938 bid for re-election. No Democrat has since won a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas.
#3. Formally, three. Jim Pearsons seat in 1978, won by Nancy Landon Kassebaum. Her seat in 1996, won by Pat Roberts. And Sam Brownbacks seat in 2010, won by Jerry Moran. For all intents and purposes, Sheila Frahms seat in 1996 was open; appointed by Governor Bill Graves, she lost the GOP primary to Brownback.
#4. The last Johnson County U.S. Senator was Pearson (1962-1978), the only one over the past century.
WHY ARE these questions important? Because Kansas rarely has an open U.S. Senate seat. Few retire and none (save the appointed Frahm) lose.
Thus, Senator Pat Robertss retirement decision has produced a wide-open 2020 race to succeed him. For Republican candidates, its an opportunity to have an extended tenure in national office; for Democrats, in the wake of 2018 victories, it represents an historic chance to capture a U.S. Senate seat.
The 2020 election may seem distant, but the filing deadline is just 11 months away. Prospective candidates need to be ready.
